Dont Become Another .com Road Kill

Remember those Super Bowl and World Cup commercials where you saw talking hand puppets, scantily dressed women, cowboys herding cats and crude lettering on cardboard? Can you actually name one .com company that paid for these millions of dollar/eurodollars for brand awareness ads?

Doesn't this type of marketing remind you of a IPO.com frenzied "drunken sailor school of budgeting" - meaning, spend like a drunken sailor hitting his/her first port of call in years, with no thought other than "brand awareness" coming to mind? Got the picture yet? Want the cliff notes to the rest of my article? Three words repeated from my header - "target customers online."

Some do and don'ts, with the do's first:

Think digital marketing - use keywords your customers may punch in to a search engine to find your site throughout your overall online and offline marketing processes. This forces you to stay focused on your customer niche and ensures context relevancy for your web site. The latter is becoming critical to garner high rankings on Alta Vista, Google and Inktomi.

Advertise cost-effectively online where your customers go - this doesn't have to be top tier web sites (more expensive typically); but can be second or third tier community sites. Use online media buying to save money; look at One Media Place, formerly Ad Auction for some unsold inventory and bid with the best of them for a deal! http://www.onemediaplace.com

Feature opt-in e-mail as a centerpiece of your marketing campaign - now is the time to negotiate a 90-120 day media plan with some of the market leaders. Yes Mail (one of our favorites) is offering a discount of 10-30%. And, use HTML rich media, your ad copy will look much better, in turn driving a better click-through results; but only if you are a B2C if B2B then don't use HTML, just plain text.

Immerse your business with the online community - post to Newsgroups announcing a special online contest, promotion or giveaway that builds over a finite period of time. Get those geeks talking in the virtual world - remember the truism of good PR, any PR is better than no PR.

Ask your existing customers where they would recommend your advertising to reach them online. Everybody likes to have their opinions valued - so reach out and ask for their input, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Think and act like a guerrilla marketing type - incorporate "guerrilla marketing" techniques to drive your business in unique ways. Go to the source, the guy who coined the term and many of the processes, Jay Conrad Levinson. http://www.gmarketing.com

Ready for some don'ts?

Don't use TV, Radio or Billboards unless you have lots of money to spend (read millions typically). Yes, they work to develop brands, but be aware of the disconnect factor when you are trying to reach online customers. When was the last time you jumped up from the TV set to write down a URL you saw splashed across a screen or stopped your car driving down your local boulevard when you saw a billboard that caught your attention? Not very often!

Don't pay top dollar for banner advertising - negotiate a good deal for yourself and don't believe the sales rep when they tell you all inventory is sold out! There is lots of unsold inventory out there, just look at the number of "house ads" (done for the company who owns the site and published on their site) being run on many web sites. Do some old-fashioned digital horse-trading and leverage your media buy!

Don't base your business on the "high tide raises all boats model" - there is definitely a storm brewing and we don't mean just at your local movie theater with George Clooney starring (sorry ladies). We are telling our clients to batten down the hatches and leverage their marketing dollars as much as possible - the party is over, time to get down to building viable business models based on selling tangible goods and services.

Don't use biz speak verbiage in your marketing processes - if I see another site that has "first mover advantage" quoted throughout the site I am going back to the radio for news/information. Be real, tell people what you do, how you do it and what the value is based on - enabling them to quickly (it's the web ...) understand what your business is all about.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies.

Lee@intelective.com

INTERNET MARKETING RESOURCES:

Xerox Gives Tips on Creating Relevant and Effective Transpromo Campaigns

At this year's Document Strategy Forum in Chicago, Sept. 10 - 12, Xerox's Shelley Sweeney and Karl Kaneen will lead sessions about how adding personalization to documents and using an efficient, automated ...

Texas Press Association State Capital Highlights

The Office of the State Auditor on Aug. 28 released an audit report on the Texas Department of Transportation's Financial Forecasting and Fund Allocation.

Massachusetts Arraigns Five for Telemarketing Fraud

A Massachusetts state court has arraigned five men on charges they used fraudulent telemarketing practices to deceive over 1,000 donors to police and veterans' charitable organizations and then allegedly using ...

Do Not Call registration passes five million

Submitted by the Public Service Commission ATLANTA - The Georgia Public Service Commission said the number of Georgians registered on the Do Not Call List has passed the five million mark.

Jingwei Announces Participation in Investor Conferences

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 3 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Jingwei International Limited , one of the leading integrated marketing companies in China, today announced that management will be participating in the ...

Jingwei Announces Purchase of Up To 100,000 Ordinary Shares By George Du President and Chairman

Jingwei International Limited , one of the leading integrated marketing companies in China, today announced that George Du, President and Chairman has informed Jingwei of his intention to purchase up to 100,000 ...

5 men face arraignment in veteran donor scam

Five men who allegedly used more than $100,000 they claimed they were raising for police and veterans charities for personal expenses are scheduled for arraignment this morning.

Mo. AG Nixon warns against political robo calls

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon pledged Tuesday to go after fellow politicians who make prerecorded phone calls to people's homes without properly disclosing who's behind them.

Consumer Smart - First Edition - September 2nd, 2008

Those pesky automated telemarketing calls could soon be disappearing. A Flash player error has occured, please make sure you have the latest Adobe Flash Player.

DMA Ramps Up Lobbying Spending in Election Year

Put aside the balloons and the baby kissing: The surest sign that it's an election year is an increase in lobbyist spending.

Proposal would bar automated election calls in Jersey

With the Democratic National Convention just ended and the Republican National Convention just getting under way, it's no wonder New Jersey lawmakers are thinking about ways to improve the election process.

Telemarketers a nuisance that can be terminated

Tired of those telemarketers interrupting your lunch, your snooze, or your favourite TV program? If so, you're definitely not alone, which is but one reason why as of Sept.

Cell no-call list at 200,000 and growing

As a deadline for a new cell phone no-call list approaches, more than 200,000 Wisconsin residents have signed up.

Il Ag Sues Car Dealerships Over Mailings

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan last week sued two Chicago-area auto dealers alleging deceptive direct mail practices, her office announced.

Georgia Do Not Call registration passes five million

" The Georgia Public Service Commission announces that the number of Georgians registered on the Do Not Call List has passed the five million mark.

Is It an ad, or...What is it?

I was interested in a recent article in a leading marketing trade magazine, Advertising Age, about the relatively flat "advertising" spending in the past year - up about 1.7%, led by super-marketer Proctor and ...

Commerce Bank hires direct marketer

Commerce Bank has signed an agreement with Dallas-based Alliance Data's Epsilon business unit to provide the bank direct marketing services.

Talbots Losses Nearly Double

The Talbots Inc. reported a net loss of $25 million for the second quarter, nearly doubling its net loss of $13.3 million in the prior year.

State agency warns consumers of telemarketing frauds

The Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs warns consumers to be aware of the various telemarketing frauds that are looking to get your money or personal information.